NARRATIVE.

CHAPTER I.

STATE OF THE VESSEL-PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE

DEPARTURE AND PROGRESS.

"What a powerful illustration does the case before us present of the oft-repeated and solemn truth-In the midst of life we are in death! Full of life and cheerfulness did the numerous passengers embark on their little-dreaded excursion; the animating sounds of music cheered their departure, which, wafted on the wings of the breeze, returned in lively tones to the ears of numerous spectators assembled on the quays— many of whom, perhaps, in short-sighted ignorance, envied their imagined privilege, and would gladly have joined in their risks, for the barter of their contemplated enjoyments! But how brief and uncertain are the moments of pleasure!"-Sorrow on the Sea, a Sermon, by the Rev. W. Scoresby.

In order that the melancholy event described in the following sheets may be the better understood, it is necessary briefly to refer to the equipments and general condition of the vessel, as they have by universal agreement been numbered at least amongst the causes which led to her calamitous destruction. In doing this, however, I shall adhere strictly to alleged facts, without applying censure to any one indirectly concerned; for I am decidedly of opinion that, assuming the allegations in question, respecting the state and management of the vessel, to be established beyond doubt, many contributory circumstances press for consideration in a more extended view of the case, all constituting links in the great and mysterious chain, with

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out one of which, perhaps, Been produced...

a different result must have

The Rothsay Castle steam-packet was built on the banks of the Clyde as far back as the year 1816, with the intention, it is understood, of employing her exclusively in the navigation of that river: the comparative slightness of her construction, therefore, which might be considered even preferable for such a limited scale of operations, might surely render her fitness for the encounter of boisterous weather, upon a shelterless waste of sea, somewhat questionable. She was, however, it appears, purchased by one Mr. Watson, of Liverpool, and placed under the command of a Lieutenant Atkinson, for the conveyance of passengers between Liverpool, Beaumaris, and Bangor. Much has been said of the eminence of the builder of this vessel, the excellence of her finish, and the additional strength given to her by recent patchings, which latter made her, we are assured by the parties concerned, "stronger than she was when new!" But it is not my business to enter into such matters: I repeat what in effect I have just now observed, that I shall neither become the apologist nor the accuser of any one who was not actually on board the vessel at the time of the wreck, feeling as I do that motives may be misjudged, but that actions speak for themselves.

First, then, it is averred that the Rothsay Castle was not built for sea-worthiness.-Secondly, she was upwards of fourteen years old, during which long period her fragile structure was exposed to the racking wear and tear of a steam-engine of fifty horses' power. — Thirdly, in the account of the Rothsay Castle given by Lieutenant Morrison, of the Royal Navy, we are told that "her upper timbers measured only four inches, which, for a vessel of about two hundred tons, is altogether below that which would entitle her to be entrusted in a difficult navigation. It is known that many vessels in his Majesty's navy,

although built of the very best materials, and constructed with first rate skill, are considered unfit to go to sea after ten or twelve years; it is not too much to assume, then, that the Rothsay Castle was in a state to be condemned, and that she was sold because she was, in plain English, worn out.”—Fourthly, it is admitted, in the certificate published by the owner, in justification, that "all the timbers which were broken" had been taken out and "replaced with new," which certainly seems to imply defectiveness of condition. Indeed, I have a portion of one of her principal timbers now by me, which might with ease be crumbled to pieces with the fingers, such is its state of rottenness!-Fifthly, she was, it is asserted, inadequately manned, and entrusted to a Commander who was too inveterately obstinate, as well as grossly deficient in professional skill, to adopt the commonest means of preservation; or else that he was reduced to such a state of miserable helplessness by intoxication, which would amount to the same thing.-Sixthly, all accounts agree in the statement that she was unprovided with any resource in the event of peril from wreck, or any of the countless accidents to which steam-packets in particular are liable. No signal of distress could be made: not a gun, not a rocket, not a blue-light, not even a signal-lantern was on board! And seventhly, at a public meeting held at Beaumaris, subsequent to the terrible catastrophe under review, the chairman, Sir Richard Bulkeley, declared that "the Rothsay Castle was known and acknowledged by the inhabitants of Beaumaris and Liverpool to have been an unsound vessel." To this may be added the opinion of Jones, the late steward, who had frequently said, long before his last fatal voyage, that the Rothsay Castle would "prove the grave of her passengers and crew before the season was over;" and it is not a little remarkable that, on the late Commission of Lunacy held in Manchester, in the case of Mr. Joseph Fletcher,

one amongst the proofs which induced a verdict in favour of the soundness of that gentleman's intellect was, that, when a passenger in the Rothsay Castle a few days before her loss, he "observed upon the craziness of that vessel, and expressed reasonable fears in consequence."

The above summary, I once more emphatically declare, is submitted as mere matter of history, without inferring in the slightest degree a wilful recklessness on the part of any one to the hazard of human life, with which that consequently precious argosy, the Rothsay Castle, was destined to be freighted.

The weather, in the early part of the morning of the disastrously memorable 17th of August, was boisterous in the exreme. So much apprehension was justified, indeed, by the heavy sea and scowling aspect of the storm, on a coast presenting so many difficulties to navigation, that the commander of an American ship, which had been towed out into the offing by a steam-boat at five o'clock in the morning, with the intention of putting to sea, considered it prudent to return to the shelter afforded by her former anchorage in the Mersey. The violence of the wind, however, subsided as the day advanced; and at the time fixed for the departure of the Rothsay Castle (which was, according to custom, ten o'clock), though the waters still retained a portion of the roughness into which they had been lashed by the recent gale, there was nothing in their appearance to alarm even female timidity. The passengers accordingly crowded on board; and the continued accession of numbers, involving of course the prospect of increased profit by the voyage, induced the captain to linger for some time beyond the hour specified. When delay had in this manner been protracted to a very censurable extent, an application was made for the conveyance of a lady and gentleman, their carriage, and servant, to Beaumaris; and this, unhappily, added about three

I say

quarters of an hour to the period of detention. unhappily, for there can be no doubt of the fatal influence which these delays exercised over succeeding circumstances. There was nothing at the moment observable in all this, calculated to excite more than pettish impatience on the part of the many who were, as they imagined, withheld from anticipated enjoyments for the convenience of the few; but in the mean time the tide, which "waits for no man," had approached so much the nearer to its flow, which, running in the same direction with a directly contrary wind, would inevitably retard the progress of the vessel, and she would thus, at the next turn of tide, be in a situation pregnant with imminent peril, from the succeeding low-water shallowness on the sand-banks which skirted her track,* even if the utmost skill and vigilance had been employed: as, however, it will appear that the vessel was considerably to leeward† of her proper course soon after she left the river, this danger was proportionately increased.

In the several accounts that have been published, the causes of this detention, which I shall be enabled to shew was instrumentally productive of such calamitous conse

*This will be seen by reference to a Chart of the Coast prefixed to this narrative.

+ As it is almost impossible to describe nautical subjects without the use of nautical terms, it may be as well to accompany them when they occur with a brief explanation. To leeward means that the wind blows from the quarter in which the specified object is situated to that which is occupied by the thing referred to, being the opposite of to windward. For instance, if the wind obliquely cross the vessel's "proper course" from the N. N. W. (see the chart), any thing to the southward of that line would be said to be to leeward of it, though S. S. E., the opposite point of the compass, would be the direct lee bearing.